First Tee and PGA TOUR Champions have announced that Natalia Jimenez will represent the First Tee of Miami when she competes in the 2019 PURE Insurance Championship Impacting The First Tee, an official PGA TOUR Champions event to be contested at Pebble Beach Golf Links and Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach, CA, on Sept. 24-29.
The 16th annual event, which is hosted by the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, will be televised internationally on Golf Channel.
The PURE Insurance Championship Impacting The First Tee is the only event of its kind where 78 First Tee teenagers from across the country are paired with 78 PGA TOUR Champions players and 156 amateurs during an official PGA TOUR Champions tournament.
Jimenez will compete for the Pro-Junior Team title. She will join 78 other participants from First Tee chapters across the country. Participants were selected by a national panel of judges based on their understanding and application of the values and life skills learned through First Tee’s programs, as well as their playing ability.
The full junior field was revealed live on Golf Channel’s Morning Drive, including a video of World Golf Hall of Fame member Jack Nicklaus surprising one of the First Tee participants. Other surprises by PGA TOUR players and Golf Channel hosts had been recorded over the past month and aired recently as part of the PURE Insurance Championship announcement.
This year’s field of professionals will include World Golf Hall of Fame members Bernhard Langer, Mark O’Meara, Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen, as well as defending champion and recent KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship winner Ken Tanigawa. Clint Eastwood serves as chair of the PURE Insurance Championship.
Play will be conducted on Pebble Beach Golf Links and Poppy Hills Golf Course on Friday and Saturday, with the final round contested solely at Pebble Beach Golf Links on Sunday, where 23 First Tee juniors will compete based on their 36-hole performance. The tournament will crown one male and one female First Tee Junior Champion on Sunday.
“We are proud to continue our involvement with this prestigious event and help support the great work of the Monterey Peninsula Foundation and First Tee,” said Katherine Frattarola, chief marketing officer of the PURE Group of Insurance Companies. “The impact this event has
on the incredible young men and women from the First Tee makes this sponsorship tremendously rewarding for our entire team.”
Natalia has been playing golf since she was 11. She has been a participant at the First Tee of Miami for over five years. She currently attends Archbishop McCarthy High School and has helped lead her golf team to their second state championship title her first year of high school. She was a 2018 Sun Sentinel Broward Girls Golf First Team Honorable Mention and plans to continue her dedication and passion by playing college golf.
“Natalia is a great ambassador for the First Tee Miami and the entire network. Her commitment to excellence on and off the course is remarkable. We are all very proud of her,” said John.
Moscoso, director of programming at First Tee of Miami.
“Being able to play the PURE Insurance Championship is a dream come true. I am very thankful for the First Tee of Miami for the opportunities they have given me and the nine core values they taught me. It is an honor to represent my chapter at this amazing tournament and being able to play one of the most beautiful courses in the world,” Jimenez said.
Nearly 1,000 teens from First Tee have played in the PURE Insurance Championship, experiencing the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet, play and be mentored by PGA TOUR Champions players and amateurs in the field.
First Tee is a youth development organization dedicated to helping young people build character through the game of golf. First Tee of Miami is one of 150 chapters around the world introducing the sport of golf and First Tee’s Core Values to kids, positively impacting their lives. Serving the City of Miami since 2002 more than 15,000 kids have been impacted through the First Tee of Miami’s programs.
To learn more about First Tee of Miami visit www.thefirstteemiami.org For more information on the 2019 PURE Insurance Championship, visit www.pureinsurancechampionship.
